The Standard

political parties

Categories under political parties

Labour Gains Ground

Written By: - Date published: 1:49 pm, March 6th, 2026 - 10 comments

Latest poll results show a gain of 10 seats by Labour but don’t forget the voter disenfranchisement laws and NZME’s Editorial Direction is still to come

Dead man walking

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, March 6th, 2026 - 63 comments

It has been a hell of a week for Christopher Luxon. His performance particularly over Iran has been appalling. And a new poll puts National under 30%.

Don’t fight the last war

Written By: - Date published: 5:53 pm, February 28th, 2026 - 29 comments

Hannah Spencer’s stunning win for the Greens in the the UK’s Gorton and Denton by-election has some lessons for political strategists here as well.

Paul Goldsmith tried to get homeless arrested 18 years ago

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, February 26th, 2026 - 7 comments

Senior National Party Cabinet Minister tried to have police arrest homelessness in Auckland 18 years ago. This year he succeeded

The Tamatha Paul Cycleways vs Water Voter Never Happened As Described

Written By: - Date published: 2:23 pm, February 26th, 2026 - 7 comments

How misinformation was used to discredit Tamatha Paul to divert attention away from genuine issues around Moa Point’s sewage disaster

A comparison between the LNG Terminal deal and the NZ Steel deal

Written By: - Date published: 11:11 am, February 16th, 2026 - 14 comments

A comparison of the LNG Terminal deal and the previous Government’s deal with NZ Steel to replace its coal fired furnace with a renewable energy supplied electric arc furnace clearly shows what this Government’s priorities are.

The Opportunity Party still hates beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 9:12 am, February 14th, 2026 - 79 comments

If you dismantle welfare, you push many New Zealanders into desperate poverty.

Think Big 2.0

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, February 12th, 2026 - 34 comments

The Government has responded to a perceived urgency caused by dry years to the country’s power supply by proposing something that is counter intuitive. Instead of rolling out solar it wants to burn imported Liquified Natural Gas. And use enabling legislation to avoid any overview of the proposal.

2.8% of New Zealand population outbound in 2 years as division widens

Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, February 10th, 2026 - 5 comments

OPINION: I visited Facebook recently and noticed some fake accounts (you know the ones with AI pictures depicting Māori in an unfavourable light, along with NZ flags featured prominently, as if love for a country is about a piece of cloth), and there’s a distinct anti-Indian sentiment being cultivated on the platform

Fast Track law fails at the first big hurdle

Written By: - Date published: 9:19 am, February 8th, 2026 - 18 comments

Environmental groups have cheered the draft Panel’s decision refusing to allow Taranaki’s continental shelf from being smashed up to extract rare earth minerals. But how will the Government respond?

Are whales people? The Green Party Bill to give whales personhood

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, February 7th, 2026 - 47 comments

Save the whales! (and ourselves)

“Surprise” unemployment high masks more damaging developments

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, February 4th, 2026 - 8 comments

Unemployment hits 5.4% in the December quarter, but that doesn’t include the 140,000 plus Kiwi citizens that have fled in the last 2 years

Game on: Labour and the Greens speak to media from Waitangi

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, February 3rd, 2026 - 28 comments

Chris Hipkins, Marama Davidson, and Chloe Swarbrick speak on unity, working together while being separate partners, and the upcoming election.

Is Shane Jones really to blame?

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, February 3rd, 2026 - 9 comments

NZ First is openly allegiant to commercial fishers, mining (fossil fuels) and tobacco companies, but is it really their fault?

Shane Jones loves fossil fuels

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, February 2nd, 2026 - 9 comments

National has allowed Shane Jones to effectively veto the country signing up to a road map away from the use of fossil fuels supported by much of the world that was consistent with current policy settings.

What does Labour do about Winston?

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, February 1st, 2026 - 61 comments

Current polling suggests that we may witness something that has not happened before, a one term National Government. But this may mean Labour making a deal with Winston Peters. What should Labour do?

Mr 8%

Written By: - Date published: 7:57 am, January 30th, 2026 - 14 comments

2026 school lunches are just as bad, but they are also emblematic of Seymour’s spin and facade

Who would have thunk that slashing Health IT budgets would result in IT outages

Written By: - Date published: 2:03 pm, January 29th, 2026 - 9 comments

A year after the Government slashed a third of Health IT jobs the Auckland hospital system has suffered a massive IT outage.

How the Atlas Network is shaping your life, even if you’ve never heard of it

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 am, January 28th, 2026 - 43 comments

Australia’s media covers the nefarious rise and links of Atlas Network in Australia and NZ.

The rise of Winston follows the rise of Pauline Hansen and Nigel Farage

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 25th, 2026 - 47 comments

Ten months to go and there is no political party currently countering the sustained rise of New Zealand First.

Mapping Carney’s speech to our MMP Politics

Written By: - Date published: 4:45 pm, January 23rd, 2026 - 59 comments

Carney’s observations of the rupture in the world order and great power rivalry are mirrored in NZ politics.

Management speech mumbo jumbo

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, January 20th, 2026 - 17 comments

Christopher Luxon’s latest State of the Nation speech suggests that over summer he has been spending more on his Spotify summer list than he should have.

MCERT V MAF V MBIE V Treasury

Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, January 15th, 2026 - 4 comments

The merger of many functions of the central public sector concerned with cities, the environment, housing and urban development, and transport, was announced in the week before Christmas and is now underway. There’s plenty of good on the face of it.

Peters attacks Reserve Bank Governor

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, January 15th, 2026 - 27 comments

Winston Peters has attacked the REserve Bank Governor Anna Bremen for publicly expressing concern about politically inspired Department of Justice attacks on US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

What David Seymour did during the holidays

Written By: - Date published: 10:05 am, January 3rd, 2026 - 5 comments

David Seymour has spent some of his holidays meeting Argentine leader Javier Milei and praising Milei’s far right inspired destruction of local Government institutions.

Some random predictions for 2026 …

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, January 2nd, 2026 - 8 comments

What will election year 2026 bring to Aotearoa?

Politician of the year?

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, December 31st, 2025 - 3 comments

Chris Bishop is thought by some to be the politician of the year, mainly for drafting a couple of bills plaigarised from the work of David Parker and untested promises to build hugely expensive roads of National significance. But they are ignoring the most extraordinary performance by an opposition leader in recent decades.

Peters spits the dummy over India Free Trade deal

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, December 24th, 2025 - 22 comments

“National preferred doing a quick, low-quality deal over doing the hard work necessary to get a fair deal that delivers for both New Zealanders and Indians.”

Good work if you can get it

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, December 21st, 2025 - 9 comments

National’s Ministerial Retail Advisory Group leader Sunny Kaushall has hit the headlines for huge catering costs inluding paying $9 for bottles of coke worth $5.50. But the deeper story should be why his activity, which is clearly political in nature, being funded by a fund set aside for victims.

Holy feck

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 pm, December 17th, 2025 - 22 comments

The last poll of the political year and it is a doozie. Labour is 8 points ahead of National.

NZ First repeals Foreign Home Buyers Ban Under Urgency, Late At Night, During X’mas Period

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, December 16th, 2025 - 17 comments

PLUS: Brooke Van Velden overturns historic Supreme Court Uber ruling, after Uber lost their appeal unanimously last month